What I've been doing

Boy, do I miss my laptop. I'm working an an archaic computer and I've had to figure out how to get to the dashboard and this thing takes forever.
Anyway, here is a picture of what I've been working on. As you can see I've started alot of things and haven't really finished much. After looking at the picture on the computer I probably will be changing some things.
I've been looking at everyone's blogs and love all the paisley work being done.
Have to get busy and work on my Rainbow gallery book. I'm a whole month behind on that. I find that I don't like to cross stitch since I'm doing the CQ. But better get back to it.

Darn Puters

Well, my laptop decided to take a break so I'm using the old computer in the office. And it is hot out here. It's a little after 6pm and the temp is 98 in the shade on the patio. Hopefully we will only have about 3 more weeks of this or we will go broke paying the electric company.
Anyway, since I have to post out here, I probably won't be posting many pictures for the next couple of weeks. But I will be looking at everyones work. Guess I'll have plenty of time to stitch now as I won't be spending so much time on the computer.

Darn Puters

Well, my laptop decided to take a break so I'm using the old computer in the office. And it is hot out here. It's a little after 6pm and the temp is 98 in the shade on the patio. Hopefully we will only have about 3 more weeks of this or we will go broke paying the electric company.
Anyway, since I have to post out here, I probably won't be posting many pictures for the next couple of weeks. But I will be looking at everyones work. Guess I'll have plenty of time to stitch now as I won't be spending so much time on the computer.

100 Details/Day 67

I was looking for an embellishment for this seam and there was Sharon with this wonderful idea. Thank you Sharon.
I'm trying to keep this in red,black and white. So far I have added a little of bright green and a little yellow. It's hard to keep to just 3 colors. It gets sort of boring.
Still waiting for some ribbon. I went to one of our stores here and they no longer carry the silk ribbon. It's amazing how stores have changed. I also went looking for small red heart shaped beads. There were none to be found. I found many other colors, but no red.

Live-laugh-love

My new block. When I put this together, it looked like a soccor ball. So I turned it around and hopefully when it's done it will be ok.

Homemade Braid

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Start with the bottom picture. I couldn't get the pictures posted in order.

I've had some inquiries about the beige braid I used on the wall hanging. So, I'll try to do some pictures and a tutorial. Hope it isn't too confusing.

You need a piece of ribbon 8x the length that you need. Fold the ribbon in half making a loop going right over left. Take the ribbon that is now on the right and make a loop. Slip this loop thru the first loop and draw the ribbon on the left down snug. Not too tight. Now make a loop with the ribbon on the left and slip thru the last loop. Keep going back and forth until the braid reaches the length you want. If you have any trouble feel free to e-mail me.

Biscornu

Istopped by Camille's Place this morning and saw that she has found out about the biscornu. Aren't they cute. These are two that I have done. the pattern for these is at http://silepointcompte.free.fr/bricotruc/biscornu/pagebiscornu.htm
This page is also in french (I think) but it has pictures showing just how to put it together. Scroll down to bottom of the page and click on Mamounette and you will find the pattern.
I hope you don't mind my jumping on your bandwagon, Camille. These are fun to do and give as gifts.
I've started a new square. Will post a picture later.

Sources for motifs

Liliian has asked for my sources for the motifs. I guess I should have posted them. sorry. The fan in the middle I think is from Maureen Greeson. The buttonhole flowers on the left and the detached chain or lazy daisy on the right are from "A vintage Bouquet" by Indygo Junction. The butterfly and small flower on the bottom right are from " Ladies of leisure" Suzanne McNeill Design Originals. And I can't remember where I got the blue motif on the center top. The seam embellishment on the bottom left is from Sharon's 100 Details. Day 58.Whew! I remembered. In the center bottom , the tatting and butterflies are from a piece of tatting in my stash. And the braid at the top I made from a piece of 1/8" ribbon. Guess that's all. I had more fun trying to find the motifs and like I said before, I didn't realize I had so much vintage material until I started doing this. I just love all the vintage things that Pam has on her Kitty and Me site. And my books along with a box of neatly catagorized silk ribbon just slipped off the bed onto the floor. Nutz!! Guess what I'm going to be doing this evening.

Finished

This is the first block I've finished. Now I just have to make it into a pillow.
Still waiting for some silk ribbon, then I can get back to the wall hanging.

More progress

Here are two pictures on my current project. I'm almost done with it. Although the morie fabric was easy to stitch on, it really takes away from the design. But as I said before. It's all I could find in my stash. I think next I would like to do a red,white and black square and one on an oriental theme. I find I'm spending far too much time finding designs to use.
I found some of these in the books I have and was amazed at how many designs I had.
It's going to get hotter here next week, going back up to 108. I hope it will cool off during the night though.

Fan Square 2

Here is the progress on my small square. It's a lot easier to work on. The braid at the top is one that I made with an 1/8" ribbon. On the left is a version of Sharon's Day 58.
The heat is suppose to return here in a few days. Not looking forward to that as last time we lost electricity for 4 days. And things where pretty bad. It was 92 degrees in the house at 3:00am. We finally had to move to a motel. We have a cocker Spanial who is 11 years old. We were really worried about her. We took her with us to the Motel with us.
I thought it was quite funny when the newspaper printed that the we wouldn't be charged for the electricity while we didn't have any. Let me see how do they charge for something we aren't using? But knowing our utilities they would probably find a way.
I'm waiting for some SR in the mail, hopefully it will come today so I can go back to working on the wall hanging.

Small square

I took the plunge last night and made a small square. When I went to look into my stash, I found I didn't have hardly any plain material. This is about all I could find. So here it is. I stitched it together by hand. Not bad, in fact if was kind of fun.
I love the vintage designs that Pan Kellogg is doing on "Kitty and Me". So I thought I would do this square with those type of designs. I dug around in my books and found some designs I could use. Then I went to auditioning floss and of course didn't have the colors I wanted, so guess where I'm going this morning. I will do this all in DMC floss and perle #8. Not sure if I want to add beads or not. So let's see where this leads me.

Victorian Needlecase

I did this about 6 years ago and thought I would post a picture because I'm at a stand still with the wall hanging. I would love to do something smaller. I'm really tempted to cut this thing apart.
I think I should have kept to doing just SRE in the wall hanging. It is getting kind of clutzy looking.
Maybe I will start a small square and give myself a break from the wall hanging. I would like to try doing a doorknocker, but don't like having to pull out the sewing machine.

Long and Short Stitch

I did this block about 5 years ago and I look at it now and think How did I do that? The pattern is from a JP Coates book on embroidery stitches. This block has a variety of stitches on it. The long and short,fern, buttonhole,satin,feather,french knot and a couple of others.
I've kind of reached a stitching block on the CQ. I would like to work on something smaller. Maybe I'll pull out my fabrics and put some blocks together.
I spent the weekend viewing the newletters on Maureen Greeson's site. Whow!!
What wonderful ideas and eye candy. Didn't get much stitching done.

100 Details/Day 36

I kept looking and looking for a treatment for this seam. I didn't want anything too big or that would take away from the motif on the bottom. I was checking out Sharon's twisted chain directions and saw this as another embellishment. then realized it was the Day 36. I've spent more time trying to find embellishments to fit.

Keeping track of needles

Ithought I might share how I keep track of my needles. After finding them hiding in my blocks I needed to do something. This is a needle book from a book called "Needle Books and other gifts for Quilters" by Debie Boyink. I have made several of these for gifts for my friends.
In the second picture you can see that I have labled the different needles with type, size and the initials of the manufacturer. My favorites are Piece Makers.
The needle book has 3 pages in it. I could have used some more.
When finished using a needle I try to remember to put it back in it's place. When I am working on a cross stitch piece I have the needle, usually with some thread in, stuck in the top of the 3"x4" baggie that I keep my threads in. I have the threads for each project in a plastic container, so I have all the neccessary things in one place.

The second panel

This is the second panel I have to work on. I have few things to do on the first one yet, but thought I would post the second. I'm looking for a frog charm or pattern to put on the lily pads. I found some already made flowers to form a water lily. I don't remember where I got the pattern for the embroidered strip at the top. I was about 5 years ago when I did that. Above that on the seam I stitched a bunch of butterflies. I have the grandkids go on a treasure hunt to find a number of things, like at Christmas I have them find all the nativity sets I have around. So I thought I would have them go on a hunt to count the butterflies on this.
One of daughters had looked in on my blog and wanted to know if I was going to do a wall hanging for all 5 of them. I just laughed. usually when I make something I do one for each one of them.

Love Blogging

I love this idea of blogging. Want to thank Sharon and Kitty and Me for the inspiration. Debbie R. for helping me to set this up. I belong to several chat groups and kind of get tired of hearing about others problems. I like the idea of being able to post my things without feeling like I'm in a competition.
I know there are alot of blogs out there and try to view a new one each day.
Have to keep my computer time down so I have time to stitch.

Pansy Motif

Ok, Debbie,
Your wish is my command. Here is the Pansy motif. I wanted that saying on here, because pansys are for rememberance, but I'm not good at backstitch so I just wrote this on there. Probably not the right thing to do, but then I guess it would be the same as painting something on.

Something different

This is a project I've been working on since February. Its an alphabet sampler from Rainbow Gallery, designed by Erica Michaels. Each month a letter of the alphabet is posted to the free cross stitch site at Rainbow Gallery. Each letter has a different stitch starting with that letter. When all the alphabet is finished, sometime next year. Erica will have the directions to make this into a book. I thought this would be a fun project to make into an heirloom project. I am using different evenweave fabrics and threads so I can learn about all the different threads that are out there. Right now I am working on the letter F and am a little behind because the letter G was posted the 1st of August.

The Chevron Stitch

Today I had started out to do the chevron and embellish it the way Sharon had on Day 25. Well, after getting in the chevron and part of the detached chain and straight stitch. I couldn't find any buttons to top them off. So I played around and came up with this.
The chevron is done in #5 perle, the detached chain and straight stitch are #8 perle and they are topped of with Antique Champagne beads. If I can stay away from my CGing, I have another project I'm working on. Need to get caught up on that. Will probably post a picture of that tomorrow.

After looking at this in the photo, I realize I should have centered the chevron over the seam. Oh well, this just shows I'm not perfect. And I just learned something else.

Easter Egg Hunt

I used to have an Easter Egg Hunt for my grandkids before they all grew up.
Some times we had as many as 30 people at the hunt. So I thought it would be a nice memory to include that in this wall hanging.
the butterfly is from a redwork pattern, I think. I did this part so long ago, I've forgotten.

100 Details/Day 40

The embellishment along the right hand side is from Sharon's Day 40. I used #8 perle and the green is hand-dyed floss.
The embellishment on the left bottom is simply a piece of braid.
The white motif is from "Treasury of Crazy Quilt Stitches" by Carole Samples.
I used both 8 and 12 perle.
WOW!I did this all today and had company for lunch besides. Maybe I'll get this done yet.

The BIG Picture

I wanted to show you what I'm working on. This is one of the squares in the wall hanging. Each square is 15" square and there are 4 of them. (more pictures later) I have done a little embellishing on all of them. I had taken a class in a quilt shop and the only other CQ I had done was a small Victorian needlecase. This is rather unwieldly to work on. the fabrics I have chosen are also kind of difficult. I will be posting pictures of the smaller blocks as I work on them.

Using a Rubber Stamp

This is an image from a rubber stamp. I was an avid stamper and this was one of my favorite stamps.
I used ribbon embroidery and the outline stitch in floss.

Trying to post a picture

Hurrah I made it with a some help from needlelilmoretime2sew. Thank you Debbie.
This is a picture of part of my wall hanging. I have been following 100 Details in 100 days by In a Minute ago and Kitty and Me. What a lot of inspiration there is there.
I will be posting more pictures tomorrow.
The button cluster looks like maybe it could use some more work. Have to see about that.

Day 1 of my blog

Well,here I am with my own blog. I wanted to create this so I can share some of the stitching I do with others. Hopefully I'll be able to figure out how to post pictures also.
So here we go.